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View Poll Results: Which issue with kingdom management frustrates you the most?

Voters

168. You may not vote on this poll

There are too many events and projects happening at the same time

1710.12%

Events and projects take too much time to complete

4929.17%

Having only up to 10 advisors at the same time is not enough

42.38%

Having 3 NPC candidates available per each of the 10 advisor roles is not enough

5733.93%

There is not enough information about kingdom management in the game

1710.12%

It is too hard to decrease your kingdom's Unrest levels

127.14%

It is too hard to get more BPs / There is always too little BPs available

For additional advisors, I think Merc's are probably not the best idea. I'd recommend one of the following
1. Projects to convert other NPCs into Advisors (or rather, more NPCs). Bartholemew Delgado is a good example. Maybe expand this to include others like Ivar the werewolf, Karg(sic) the Lizardfolk Shaman, Har(sic) the nobelman looking for his lost brother, Tarcukk/Tartuccio (why not?) Melissa the Nereid, etc.
2. Hire Advisors (just like you hire mercenaries); I think it's best to keep the pool of adventuring Merc's separate from the Advisor Merc's.

Can we have the upgrade projects for non-adventuring NPCs (like the Curator) be Generic (instead of "make me a better Magister" make it "make me a better advisor")

And yeah, the kingdom is a gold sink until it's too late to matter. Admittedly, it's not like I need that gold for much else (there's not decent merchant until after you beat Pitax, which is almost too late to matter).

One of the effects of having so many projects, and on such a scattered time frame, is how it always anchors you to the capital. Unless you set things up to line up and take weeks to conclude (rarely an option), you only have a few days to explore the map and do quests before returning to see what the results are. For example, if your next-completed tasks are 9 days away, you only have 4-5 days of leverage to work with, and then you have to focus on getting back. Feels like a lot of time in transit if you want to have an active hand in the kingdom, double so when you are slogging through the Narlmarches where your move speed is halved. Granted, there is a mod for this, but considering how long some of those projects can tie up important advisors, it's a decision made early that you have to endure for whatever comes later when you have no way of knowing whether you will need that advisor. Best example of this is all the High Priest tasks that require months to go through.

More advisors would be nice to see. The initial cast is literally a motley group the baron/baroness meets on the road, so the bar for entry isn't high. There must be other people who can be met on the road who have skills that can be used, especially as the quests progress and one's reputation grows. Dwarves who hear of Bronzeshield being cleared, lizardfolk after their village is met, etc. This would show how the actions are affecting the kingdom as a whole, not just out in the field.

And the economy of the barony feels thin. One could push the economy and have all the merchant opportunities and build shops and smiths in the villages all they want, but the capital's merchants never reflect whether the barony is doing well or getting by on a shoestring budget. Going to the trouble to find the region resources, especially on a limited time frame because of the events going on, still requires BP investment, and only to tick up certain numbers. And those numbers going up aren't reflected in the kingdom itself, or at least not as much as they could be.

And that brings me to my last point, and I admit it is minor. It would be nice if there were more reflective customization available, like changing the banner, the throne room and one's quarters, the guards as you improve your military, etc. (swordlords or wizards as officers? No visible difference) Things feel static until the Bloom arc, and then go right back to being static until the City is unlocked. And the villages that we visit, despite having the option to be placed in different places, all look the same. Easy to forget where we are at any given time.

Good work up to this point, though. The new overlay for kingdom management is intuitive and breaks things down well, and performance has been hugely improved, so thanks for all your work so far.

I would have chosen an "Other" option. I most mind that it's not more integrated with the rest of the game--i.e., from the second you go to the House at the Edge of Time, the kingdom management entirely stops mattering. (ROT-13 spoilers) Gung'f gjb ragver puncgref.

I would have chosen an "Other" option. I most mind that it's not more integrated with the rest of the game--i.e., from the second you go to the House at the Edge of Time, the kingdom management entirely stops mattering. (ROT-13 spoilers) Gung'f gjb ragver puncgref.

Not entirely. In last chapter (after House) I think days you have to win depends on how well your kingdom was when you left for the House.

The real issues is a badly designed kingdom management system. I also feel that choosing one of these issues to fix won't solve the problem long term. Think of playing in a tabletop, you have time to discuss a kingdom event. You have the ability to dispatch a order while working on other projects. Some projects can wait, while others can and you know both of these in advance. There is an orderly fashion with how the management works, and you do all of that work during the 1st week of the month. Why owlcat wanted to make a custom system when one was already provided for is beyond me. The result is a rushed feeling during kingdom management, and it feels like it's almost a separate game from the RPG aspect. You don't feel that you're actually building a kingdom, and don't have anything but linear choices.

I would overhaul the current system. If that isn't a possibility I would change the following things.
1. Allow customer made NPC's to hold leadership roles, and allow a selection of what role they could take in character creation. This fixes the not enough advisers issue.
2. Make every event 1 day long. This means that any event will be completed shortly after it's undertaken. This is a stop gap measure until you figure out a good balance for players to actually complete kingdom events.
3. Kingdom events don't randomly go off while players are exploring. Make events happen when a player is returning to the capital. I don't know how many times I've gotten two days out and a kingdom event pops up and I feel like I need to return to deal with it. This will give players a better chance to not feel pressured to complete kingdom events right when they pop up.
4. Take off the damn time limit of any kingdom event, and the game as a whole. Give the players unlimited amount of time to complete the game. Add in a special time mode difficulty for those that want that "the pressure is on" game. There is nothing more frustrating than putting in 40 hours into a game then failing it because you took your time to smell the roses during a game.
5. lower the dang DC's of events so they don't snowball on players to the point where there is no possibility of making the DC. As time goes on the DC's should become easier to beat.
6. offer a exit the capital button directly from kingdom management. Then make a jump to kingdom management button from within your own turf. This just makes sense in a video game. This will make a lot of people happy, and is mostly a QOL issue.
7. add in a teleport spell to any location the player has visited. This will help players complete kingdom events in a better timely manor. This also means no wondering around the map looking for a location you've already been to for any quests, or kingdom events.

After finishing the game I think I can share more about problems of Kingdom Management. This is in addition to what was said earlier.

Making buildings (especially special ones you need to unlock like Mendevian Knights or Aldori Academy) seems completely pointless.

By end of the game I had all ranks at X, Serene kingdom, all regions conquered and upgraded and many kingdom projects completed (all that were not just price reduction for building cost as those are as pointless as buildings themselves).
I achieved this by just making as little as needed. All my areas had teleportation circles and buildings that would give bonus to advisor rolls. Those that could also had Aviary.
The rest of the buildings were made just so I can reach thresholds for advisor upgrading (20, 40, 60, 80 ...) .
As a result my LG kingdom was full of Goblins as their building was only one worth making for a decent bonus to Espionage.

Except for their bonus to stats buildings seem to have zero effect in the game. This is one of the reasons why people say that kingdom management feels disconnected from the rest of the game. We didn't even get an end game slide that would mention some changes based on having these buildings. Having a bunch of Goblin quarters all over in human settlements would make the game very different.

Also why are there no quests connected with dealing with troubles that would arise from Goblins and non Goblins living together?

Mendevian crusader quest also seems to not be connected with their building but just by pledging to help them.

If you are planning to improve kingdom parts, you need to integrate this more into the game.

But if you really want to fix this I would remove at least half the buildings as they are only stats for some BP and then add some real content for the half that stays in the game. Add quests, events and such.

at first a big thanks to the Dev's for the good game, even if it could be even better...

About the Poll, the questions are not the good ones

i voted for the lack of information or the false informations
i failed completely my first game run becoause of the bad info,
16 days before the first curse, the game "said" i was safe and have plenty of time before the curse
so i launch a 14 day upgrade. and when i wake up from this TRAP there were spiders everywhere 2 days BEFORE the curse
and i didn't understand the impact from 12 day curse on my realm, only later => game over

some things are good

I think the flow, numbers and time of events and projects make feel like actual management.
i agree with <valladin> 1. topic

BP number are enough , i'm ok if your treasure is used to get BP to speed you realm grow
the only BP problem is the buying mode from gold.
you should buy them directly in the screen you need them (town, project, strategic map) without the BORING need to leave and load several screens to go to the merchant
especially if youre not in your capital. you can manage your baronny from outside but not buy BP if needed !!! it's really dumb
what a fail to go to a blue point to capture it and discover that you can't because some event eat your 15 mandatory BP

decreasing the unrest is not the problem. the problem is how bad game information and advisor management features increase the unrest...

the main problems are not in the pol

auto-time skip and the 14 days trap

as everyone said, auto-time skip and the 14 days trap when your leader is involved is really a misconception
you can start a new project when you are far away, near your border, but you can not manage two from your throne room, this is really a joke

during this 14 days, you need to eat, pee, sleep,.. you are not petrified
you CAN find some minutes to assign an advisor to a new task

ok to stay between the throne room and the kingdom management screen during this period and not go playing in the wilderness or to the capital,
but you must be able to speak to peoples in you throne room and to your advisors
(and you must be able to buy BP from the kingdom management screen!!!)

this is what is going on in the real player life, and totally against the game spirit and role playing
1 save
2 advance 14 days one by one to see what nightmare could come
3 load
4 launch the 14 day trap or not (depends 2)?? is that really how you want the game to be played

your companions can be advisors on task and still go adventuring with you, even out of the barony (in places where the baron himself can not do anything in barony management)
and you want us to believe they couldn't pause a task, go to another one, go back to the previous one
your really kidding about the global concept

we have to make choice and we can afford to loose some opportunity i'm ok with this feature

there is already heavy constraint in the kingdom management by the need to come back often to see what's going on
we don't need more artificial one's

it's ununderstandable to suffer event problems because the only mandatory advisor is involved in a long run project
you should at least can suspend (and NOT break) a project, even if it cost something (a time and BP penalty will be understandable)

another solution if it's hard to rebuild this software part could be to add a way to use the same advisor on 2 tasks (the second one being only an event problem)
with some BP cost (need of new manpower, buiding..., night work bonus...)

or maybe we could hire at BP cost a suB-advisor or deputy (NPC with standard stat +3 or +4 copy from the main advisor) for this single problem event

or the baron will handle himself the event at the cost of being stuck in the throne room as for a region upgrade

or another free advisor could handle this event problem with a small DC penalty
...you have plenty of choices but threw away this trap

advisor type companion and NPC

companion can go playing with you while making their advisor job
they have free stat upgrade by levelling
they have magic items, belt or head band, to boost their stats
they can do the job even if they never learned it

NPC are not levelling and can not have magic items
you have to learn them their job, even if you can't do it yourself, you are yourself punished to use such NPC advisor by the 14 days trap needed for any increase
Ranking up an advisor should really be an instant event as much as leveling (you level up freely after doing your adventurer job, it shoul be the same for the advisor they do the job enough to be upgraded)

the companion versus NPC option is very weird
for example for a LG barony kassim is evidently the best choice as a general BUT regongar can easily have a +7 bonus (level and belt)
so when kassim (only +4 no upgrade available) failed the events regongar will have success on the same event

another exemple with the regent ( octavia and valerie whith only +2 Ch). So my valerie get a +3 ch by levelling(15->16) and has my only +4 head band.
it's only a trick for the regent and totally stupid to go fighting ( and my charismatic leader can not use this headband himself)
so the advisor job bend the companion levelling and equipment and his against their companion job to go exploring with the leader
same matter with amiri, as a general she need only strength but a barbarian fighter need const...

NPC should have less penalty and more facility to upgrade to be levelled with the companion bonus features

but it will be even better for the RP if the advisor where not companion at all but only functionnary (like kassim, kestern...)
unstead of the complex companion nature, NPC will have only simple alignment, easier to owlcat to wrote scenary and dialog
all NPC will have the same stat bonus and could be given magical objects

this functionnary NPC will not vanished (solving the 3 candidate problem) and could heaven be created and recrut like NPC mercenary
as we can recrut companion mercenary

I know we're talking about an official solution to the problems with Realm Management, but the Kingdom Resolution mod has a quite simple mechanism for buying BPs from the management screen... you can spend gold directly on projects. You spend BPs first, but then your personal gold. So, if you only have 40 BPs in your treasury and you look at a 50 BP project, it will list the cost as "40 BPs, 800 gold".